Microsoft: No Vista Code Changes

Microsoft slammed an article by Australian technology publication Smart House on Friday, calling it "speculation." The retort came as a result of a story that cited sources within the company saying as much as 60 percent of Vista code needs to be rewritten.

The article claimed that the Redmond company had to transfer developers from the Xbox team to the Windows division in order to ensure the Vista makes it to a CES 2007 release. Much of the article centered on issues with the Media Center and multimedia functionality, and claimed Intel was assisting Microsoft in rushing out the new code.

Relatively unknown outside Australia before this week, Smart House made waves in the blogosphere and throughout the Apple enthusiast community with a story on Tuesday. In that article, the publication cited an unnamed BenQ executive as saying among Taiwanese manufacturers, the existence of an Apple "iPhone" is "common knowledge."

"This is speculation with no demonstrable basis in fact," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews on Friday. "There aren't any Xbox developers moving over to the Windows Vista team," he said, disputing the core premise of the story.

Representatives with Intel could not be reached for comment.

Microsoft said that Vista is "feature complete," which means that the code writing process is basically over. "The next phase of development focuses on security, testing and fit/finish - not writing new code," the spokesperson added.

The company also reiterated its prior shipping targets -- to business in November, and consumers in January 2007.